Monthly review December 2022

The month of December was 1.1 degrees too warm compared to the reference period 1961-
1990 at the weather station Dresden-Klotzsche. With a monthly mean of 2.0 °C, it was one of
the more average December months. In the ranking since 1961 it takes 27th place, with an
average of 2.9 degrees warmer since 1961. The month ended with a bang on New Year's
Eve: Temperatures of around 17°C were still measured around midnight, which was also a
new warmth record for the following January (Fig.1 and Fig.2).
39 hours of sunshine were recorded (a small minus of 5 hours). In the December months
since 1961, however, sunshine duration in Dresden has increased by an average of 19 hours.
The sum of all individual measurements of precipitation reached 35.6 mm (a minus of 14.7
mm) at our measuring station in Coswig in December. The monthly total thus corresponded
to only 71 % of the normal value for this month. We thus registered a too dry December in
terms of the total amount of precipitation that fell.
At the Dresden-Klotzsche weather station, the precipitation total in the December months
decreased considerably in the period 1961-2022 with 19.8 mm. This is an extremely negative
signal for groundwater balances and vegetation (e.g. forests) in the short and long term.
Weather characteristics:
Trough weather conditions and towards the end of the month also westerly weather
conditions dominated the month of December. Around the middle of the month, a period of
frost was recorded with negative temperatures in double figures in some areas. Exactly at
the end of the month, a strong mild south-westerly current caused local temperatures of
around 20 °C in Germany. In Dresden-Klotzsche, 17.7 °C was reached on 31 December (Fig.
1). New temperature records were set across the board.